I believe we are all guilty of doing it... being distracted while driving. How many of us eat, check out cars next to us, talk on our phones, or even worse, text while driving? How many times have you been driving down the road and wondered "What in the world is that car in front of me doing?" as they weave in their lane or go 10 mph under the speed limit? You pass them only to see the driver running their mouth on the cell phone or trying to read a text message. All of these extra things we do distract us from our primary job: safely operating a motor vehicle.

They say that driving while texting while driving is the same impairment as driving when you have had two alcoholic beverages. How many of you would feel comfortable driving or being on the road with someone who has had two or more drinks? Think of all the things you can miss in the time it takes for you to read a text message. You might justify it to yourself that you only look away for a couple seconds. Then I pose to you this: How many times have you stopped with only inches to spare? How many times have you caught that other car trying to change lanes into you out of the corner of your eye? How many times were you lucky to notice that piece of trash in the road and avoid it? Realize, when you are going 60 mph, you are traveling 88 feet per second. After two seconds (you know, the time you felt comfortable looking away from the road to the phone) you would have gone 176 feet. It looks like you aren't going to miss anything by inches when you look away for a "couple seconds".

The moral of the story is the Priceville Fire Department responds to many car accidents. Many of which are caused by distracted driving. Click on the picture above for a two minute video. It shows bus drivers texting while driving. Would you want them driving you or your kids anywhere? However, how many of you do it with your families in the car? Arrive alive!